In this article, we are focusing on to guide you through the Watch Party feature on Facebook. Content
What is Facebook Watch Party?
Facebook introduced the Watch Party as a feature to let the members of a group watching live, pre-recorded, or published videos from various pages at a time. Anyone can host a watch party, add videos to it and stream it across the groups. It enables a shared viewing experience, and let all group members interact with each other while watching the same video. In effect, it gives the experience of watching some live videos. Facebook, now has extended the same feature for the profiles. So, with the feature, you can also create a Watch Party on your timeline itself. Your friends will get notified whenever you start a Watch Party on your timeline. Likewise, the group members will also get informed about your Watch Party on Facebook Groups. You can invite people to watch as well as to co-host the party.
How to Start a Facebook Watch Party?
As mentioned above, you can start the Watch Party on Facebook both on a group you are already a member of as well as on your wall where your friend circle could watch it. You can add videos to the queue, and start hosting. Here is how to start doing Watch Party on a Facebook group or your profile. In case you are looking to create a Watch Party on your own and let your friends watch, here is how.
If you want only the members of a specific group to watch your stream, you can enter the group and start Watch Party as in the above tutorial. The publishing procedures are all the same, except with its public visibility. Members of the group can join the Watch Party, become co-hosts, and comment. Others can also share your Watch Party post, depending on the group’s nature. Facebook’s Watch Party is almost like publishing a Live or Recorded Live video. Whatever controls you are doing over the Watch Party will reflect in the stream. Therefore, you can pause, skip, or change the video during the Watch Party streaming. Also read: How to Disable Face Recognition on Facebook?
How to Add More Videos to the Watch Party Queue?
The Watch Party option lets you add videos to be played before you publish the Watch Party. However, you can also add more videos to the queue even after it is being published. Also, you can add further videos even after you start airing the show. It allows you to get videos from multiple sources, across Facebook pages and profiles. However, it still does not allow you to stream videos outside of Facebook.
When the currently playing video finishes, it will automatically move to the following ones till the end. Also Read: How to Find Out Nearby Friends on Facebook?
How to Add Co-host to the Watch Party?
When you create a Watch Party, you alone will be hosting. So, whenever you decide to stop, pause, or exit, the entire show might break. It would not be fair when a large group of audience is there. In order to overcome this, you can add co-hosts other than you. They can control the premiere just like you do. Here is how.
Please note that you will only be able to add the people who are currently watching the Watch Party as co-hosts.
Bonus Tips for Watch Party
Apart from just premiering the watch party, you can invite people and get the count of the ones who is watching. Therefore, there is a great chance that you can get popularity for your video posts through the Watch Party. The invite option is something which definitely lacks in the normal video post mode.
When you are airing a show, you can see the invite tab on the right of your browser screen. By clicking the invite button against each name, you can invite them to watch your party. Just below that goes the comment section. You can also find who is joined to watch the streaming. When you pause the video, it will pause the entire stream and you can even stop amid the premiere. If you want to leave the page, but continue the show you can add any other Co-hosts and let them manage the comments and video queues. In fact, the feature does not seem very helpful for Facebook Video Publishers, if they are looking to increase the video views. The views, comments, and engagements that reach the Watch Party containing a video will count for that party only. It does not reflect on the original video. So, it is mostly used by the group members to set up some shows on the social platform to share multiple videos. Facebook is expected to add more options to the Watch Party feature very soon. If anyone could tell me how to do this on a PC, would be very interested. Haven’t found it yet.
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